ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– It has been a long time since Senior Day was not the last home game of the year for Eastern University Men's Basketball. Today, Eastern's five seniors started together with the goal of assuring that the Eagles would have a MAC Freedom Tournament game at home. After being recognized before the game, the seniors combined for 56 points in a 93-69 win over the Wilkes University Colonels.
Eastern finishes tied with Delaware Valley University at 11-3 in the MAC Freedom, but the Aggies claim the top seed by virtue of a better record against DeSales. Eastern will host third-seeded Misericordia at 7:30 on Wednesday. Delaware Valley will host DeSales in the other semifinal.
The game could not have started better.
Greg Boyd, in his first career start, found
Tarek Hamzeh on the right wing on a well-executed screen and fade play. Hamzeh hit the 3-pointer on his only shot of the day. After the Colonels scored inside, Boyd found his way into the heart of the WIlkes defense and kicked a pass to
Lincoln Holley at the top of the key. Holley hit his first 3-pointer of the game.
The Colonels scored baskets around a pair of
Shaquan Turk foul shots and had a 10-8 lead. Boyd earned his way to the front of the rim for a layup to tie the game. The Colonels hit a 3-pointer for a 13-10 lead before Hamzeh then found
Austin Carroll on a 2-on-1 break. All five Eastern seniors scored int he first five minutes of the game.
Boyd tied the game at 15-15 with his first of two 3-pointers on the day. Boyd finished with 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
"I am really proud of our seniors," Head Coach
Eric McNelley said after the game. "I am happy for Greg. He has played a bigger role on this team than people see, and it is great for the five of them to win on this day and give us a chance to play again at home."
Austin Duncan, Victor Peña, and
Anthony Concepcion checked in and the Eagles put on a little burst. The trio scored ten points in a little over a minute to give the Eagles a 27-19 lead. Concepcion hit back-to-back 3-pointers on passes from Duncan.
The lead grew as the half progressed, but the Colonels seemed to be hanging around in striking distance until Turk found Holley in the corner for a 3-pointer as time expired. Holley had ten points and Eastern led 49-31 at halftime. The Eagles went 7-of-11 (63.6%) from 3-point range and held the Colonels to 4-of-21 (19%) shooting over the same stretch.
"We did a really good job contesting their shooters as the game progressed." McNelley said. "We are going to need to do that really well on Wednesday when we face a team full of shooters. Misericordia has a lot of really talented offensive players."
A 16-4 run to start the second half put the Eagles up 30. Peña, who missed much of the first half with foul trouble, put his stamp on the game with 11 points in the first eight minutes of the second half. He hit a pair of 3-pointers in the run. He finished with 14 points and five rebounds in only 13 minutes. He is 14-of-24 from 3-point range in MAC Freedom games.
Eastern kept the lead at or above 25 points the rest of the way. Carroll and Turk each finished with 15 points to lead the Eastern scorers. Concepcion had 11 and Holley had 13 to join, Boyd and Peña in double-figures. The Eagles shot 57.4 percent from the floor and made 14-of-25 3-pointers.
"It is a great accomplishment to get to 11 wins in this league and to secure the second seed," McNelley continued. "These seniors have grown so much, and I am really proud of where we have come. We are looking forward to having a great home crowd on Wednesday night."
